Let’s Save Komenda Sugar Factory!

WE recall the excitement that greeted the commissioning of the defunct Komenda Sugar Factory in Komenda in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Constituency in the Central Region in 2016.

IN fact, the pomp and pageantry that characterised the revival of the sugar factory were so loud that it resonated in almost every corner of this country.

MANY residents, especially sugar cane farmers, welcomed the resolve by the Mahama-led government at the time to resuscitate the collapsed sugar factory.

THEY had high hopes because there was going to be a ready market for their sugarcane.

BUT two years after the inauguration of this multi-million state project, the benefits are yet to trickle down to the farmers and residents of KEEA and beyond.

BUT according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, his administration was seriously looking for “a strategic investor to revive the debt-ridden and idle” Komenda Sugar Factory.

THIS, the President contends, has become necessary because his administration was bequeathed with a non-operational sugar factory in Komenda.

PRESIDENT Akufo-Addo made these observations when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Komenda in the Central Region during his recent tour of the region.

STILL worrying is the fact that since its commissioning, the Komenda Sugar Factory has not undertaken any commercial processing of sugarcane into sugar, due to serious flaws in the planning of the project. This is indeed serious, and makes Today wonder why spend so much state money on a project only to allow it to sit idle?

IT is refreshing to hear the President announce that a strategic investor is being sought to put the sugar factor in operation.

IT is in the light of the above that Today is urging the Akufo-Addo administration to do all it can to ensure that the Komenda Sugar Factory begins full operation or else it will become one of the many state projects that have become “white elephant.”

THE fact is that the sugar factory is a project which operation will not only provide a ready market for sugarcane farmers but also more importantly, create jobs for the people in the KEEA constituency.